“How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse!
How much better than wine is your love,
and the scent of your perfumes than al spices!”
(Song of Songs 4:10, NKJV)
We will today discuss the third prototypical female figure, and the first of two similar incidents of particular significance, which clearly points out the role that women played in Jesus’ mission on earth. It also paves the way for the fourth prototypical figure.
According to Luke’s report of the event this was also an unknown woman. In Luke 7:36-38 we read that Jesus had eaten with one of the Pharisees who had invited him for a meal, and when He sat at the Pharisee’s table, “a woman in the city who was a sinner … brought an alabaster flask of flagrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil”.
This is one of the most intimate instances of Jesus’ involvement with a woman. It is interesting to note that Luke refers to her as an unknown woman, even a sinner, and then recounts the host’s critical thoughts on the matter – “Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner'” (verse 39).
In John 11:1-2 the context of Lazarus rising from the dead is sketched, and his two sisters are referred to by name, with a specific remark made about Mary – “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.” In the following chapter the whole story is then recounted – “There they made Him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” (John 12:2-3).
It is perhaps because John wrote his gospel later than Luke wrote his that he could state, with greater certainty, that it had indeed been Mary. But it does remain strange that Luke did not refer to Mary by name.
After Judas had raised his concern about the oil being wasted, Jesus makes this important remark – “Jesus said to Judas, ‘Leave her alone! She has done this to prepare me for the day I will be placed in a tomb.’” (GW)
If we can believe Luke and the Pharisee, then this woman, Mary, who is referred to as a sinner, had an understanding of Jesus’ suffering which all the other believers and religious people had not had. Her actions speak of an intimate knowledge concerning what is happening, and that makes her immensely sad. Her tears drop onto his feet in place of the water which would have been needed to wash them, and then she dries his feet with her hair, and anoints them with precious oil. As with his ancestor David she prepares for Him a deathbed “filled with spices and various ingredients prepared in a mixture of ointments” (2 Chron 16:14). Thus she becomes the prototype of the Bride-in-restoration who fully identifies with Jesus.
- Sela: What link is there with Rom 6:4?
- Read: Ex 17-19
- Examine the way this has been fulfilled: Ex 17:6 (Tip: 1 Cor 10:4)
